To cleanse the palate, this has already passed the viral and mega-viral stages and reached the elusive “watch it now because it’s going to come up during small talk this weekend, I guarantee you” phase. How is it, you’re wondering, that this kid took such an interest in a performance that happened a good 15 years before he was born? Simple: He’s a YouTube success story in more ways than one.

Remarkably, the 17-year-old says he’s never had any formal training.

Instead he started practising Jacko moves about 10 years ago when he became hooked on YouTube clips of the late, great performer.

“It started in 2001, at a very young age, when Michael reunited with his brothers. Someone in my house was flipping through the channels, (and) the way he moves really caught my eye,” starcasm.net quotes [Brett] Nichols as saying.

“Over the years, through YouTube, I spent months just watching it again and again … I studied each part (and) taught myself.”

The moonwalk in particular is — mwah — magnifique, enough so to have caught the attention of Jackson’s estate. Although, as a former high-school nerd who struggled with typical nerdish social anxiety, I’m more impressed by the sheer balls this kid showed in going full Jacko before hundreds of his peers than by the moves themselves. Next stop: Cashing in? A “Dream a Little Dream” reboot, maybe? Sky’s the limit.